Rotten (Video) Egg?
Wednesday, March 26th, 2008
Videoegg, one of the first established user generated video content sites that launched in early 2005 is shutting up shop; or at least they are closing the “My Video Egg” platform part of the business.
As the email sent to all subscribers states;
“It is with our sincerest regret to inform you that we will be closing the doors on the Videoegg Publisher Platform and related services at http://my.videoegg.com/. “
In answer to the question as to why they are decommissioning, the FAQs on the site state somewhat ambiguously that;
“… resources at technology startups are limited and it is in our best interest to focus on the core of our business at this time. With a wide range of video destination sites available on the market, we feel that we are leaving you in good hands. “
It was not that many weeks ago that Brightcove pulled the plugs on their free upload facility.
Presumably the “paying” side of the Video Egg business is working. As they stated in a recent blog;
“People working in the digital marketing space have a couple of things to be happy about in 2008. First, we are finally seeing a decent amount of TV dollars moving online - something that took much longer than it should have, and wasn’t easy.”
Suggesting that this particular egg has landed sunny-side up and they have secured enough of those TV Dollars to jetison the user generated video that brought them traffic… and overheads.
Is this a start of a trend as the plethora of user generated content sites try and find sustainable business models? After all, Google can’t buy them all!
I wonder as well if the pure ‘novelty’ online video has had its day and whether people are more interested in sensible communication with video rather than distraction?